Just read the article in the latest issue and like anyone who has seen the trees - fascinated.
Thank you for also including the info about the companies that only see profits from fabulous nature.
The photos are wonder-full!

It is obvious how large of an imprint America's National Parks, such as the Redwoods, have on people of all ages. So many of us have childhood memories of certain aspects of nature that come back to us later on in life.

Because the national parks are one of America's biggest assets we should speak up and promote their preservation.

How better to do so than keeping up to date with Your Parks at the National Park Foundation's new site: www.yourparks.com

When you're there, make sure to vote for a winner to win the Your Parks Video Challenge.

I live 4 miles from Jedediah Smith Redwoods National and State Parks and as you know, all the parks are threatened by cuts right now, but this one is very special, as I am sure the other parks have fans who would say the same.

Every summer we live at Jed every chance we get, and I often think, that my family; swimming, and admiring fish and tadpoles and crawdads, building ponds and streams on the sand and rocks, and skipping stones, probably lives very much the same way in relationship to that spot, as other, more native families 10,000 years ago.

Now Jed has more than the river, more than the trees. It also has a buried history of ancient villages and artifacts and has to deal with how to leave the past as sacred while still using the site as it has always been used. The dilemnas of the modern world.

Thank you for posting about my favorite spot. I really enjoyed reading it and seeing your picture.

Great article! We are excitedly discussing and enjoying it it all around town.

Thank you for a fair accounting of our area's past, and an encouraging look at our current progress and future potential. Fascinating? Yes! Intriguing, insightful and responsible too.

Sharing this with our visitors will be a pleasure,

Mike Morgan
President, Greater Trinidad Chamber of Commerce

I have had the pleasure of experiencing the park only once but it was magical -- something I had wanted to do since reading about the redwoods in National Geographic in the 60s as a child.

There is an amazing adventure novel for preteen children called Operation Redwood by S. Terrell French which helps kids get excited about redwood trees and view them as living things needing our protection. It's a great story taking us into the heads and hearts of a small group of boys and girls as they explore and learn to love these rare ancient forests.

I got married in a grove of redwoods in Northern California and have been in love with them since.

Fine article and excellent photography.

Just came back from the redwoods yesterday - this time exploring Redwood National Park and Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park.

Thank - you !!

M. D. Vaden
Beaverton, Oregon

Thank you as always for reminding me of my most beautiful memories, but most sadly your continuous warnings about the treasures we are losing in California. Big Sur and its awesome coastal redwoods has been our favorite family vacation site for decades, but the saddest fact of life today is that drought, water shortages and firestorms are now threatening destruction of every beautiful treasure in California.

The reality is that for far too many decades now, California’s political and scientific institutions have not only failed to protect and preserve our most beautiful treasures, but also more importantly failed to protect and preserve quality of life for future generations.

One most hellacious consequences of our institutional failures is the ongoing creation of a dust bowl in Fresno, and one of the most productive agricultural areas in history, California’s Central Valley is now in extremis.

Most sadly I must admit that at my own alma mater, University of California scientists at the UC National Labs have failed to protect and preserve California’s most valuable and irreplaceable treasures vital to our quality of life, if not survival of Humanity.

As President Eisenhower proclaimed in his 1961 Farewell Address to the Nation: “The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present – and is gravely to be regarded.” We are now experiencing totally unacceptable consequences of our failures to heed and act on that warning.

I was born under these trees in Forest Knolls CA. and have 13 redwoods on my property here in Oregon, I planted them about 10 years ago and they are quite tall, I love them dearly!

Inspiring article on the great redwoods. They are also growing in other places. My blog shows a giant redwood in the Arnold Arboretum in Boston, Ma.
Blithewold, in Bristol, Rhode Island has a beautiful specimen about 100 years old. My backyard specimen on Aquidneck Island, Rhode Island is going on 4 years old. I also have S. sempivirens and Dawn Redwoods growing here for future generations.

Congratulations to the tree rigging team for capturing a truly beautiful picture. However, I can't help but wonder why there is no mention of James Balog's "Tree" project, a project carried out from 1998 to 2004, where he captured the "Champion" trees of North America in a unique photographic style.

Iluvatar, the redwood featured in the NGM foldout this month, was captured from the SAME location, the same perspective, by James. Granted, there were no high-tech mechanical devices used, James and the tree-riggers actually climbed to the top of these beautiful trees and shot the whole subject himself, finger on the trigger.

In a field so competitive as photography, the only thing a professional can really try to protect is their original thoughts and ideas. James, who pioneered the idea used in this months Redwood article, not only pioneered but actualized, is oddly left out of the celebration.

No writer would have the audacity to in this modern day to write a story of a whaler hell-bent on finding a brutal white whale and call it his own, why is this suddenly acceptable in photography?

Visit www.jamesbalog.com and www.extremeicesurvey.org to see the stunning work of James Balog.

Regarding the project by James Balog, done years earlier and as far as i know pioneered the technique, it seems that National Geographic should have had the sense of acknowledging the pioneering work by those who came before. If its to boost sales by presenting an idea as brand new when its not-i understand, but i dont agree with that.

I see some of the same people in this story that I read about in the book The Wild Trees by Richard Preston. In fact, I was inspired by the book to write a song called Reaching for the Sun, which follows one of the book's threads. Hear the song at my website.

The video was spectacular! I have one question! How did they get that rope to the top of the tree so it could be climbed? Wonderful info...and education! I can't wait to see these beauties!

Just curious...did anyone notice the ghost climber on the cover photo? He's on the right hand side of the tree, a little lower than the climber on the left, and recognizeable by his headband, washboard abs and minotaur-like trunk.

So James Balog has been mentioned.

I like the photos by Balog and Nichols, and would like both version in my office someday when I move it to a bigger room.